adminMANCHESTER. — Manuel Pellegrini believes Manchester City are hitting form at precisely the right moment as his side prepare for a crucial week in the Barclays English Premier League soccer title race.City warmed up for a potentially decisive seven days, in which they must travel to Manchester United and Arsenal, with an emphatic 5-0 victory over 10-man Fulham at Eastlands on Saturday.
The five-star display was achieved without Bosnian forward Edin Dzeko, who fell sick on the day of the game, and City’s injured leading scorer Sergio Aguero
But a hat-trick from Cote d’lvoire midfielder Yaya Toure, two of them penalties, was followed by goals from Fernandinho and Martin Demichelis as City moved to within six points of leaders Chelsea with three games in hand.
Bookmakers rank City and Chelsea as joint favourites for the title, but City boss Pellegrini has refused to rule out the threat from in-form Liverpool and even faltering Arsenal, who were routed 6-0 by Jose Mourinho’s leaders on Saturday.
“I don’t think it’s just between Chelsea and Manchester City,” he said. “We must continue to fear what Liverpool are doing every week, they are playing well, scoring goals.
“Arsenal had a bad game against Chelsea but they are still only seven points behind Chelsea but with one game less. The four teams have the same chance to win the title. They must play seven games more, Arsenal must play eight, we must play 10. There are a lot of points left to decide it.”
The five-goal rout recalled earlier parts of the season when City were setting goalscoring records, especially at Eastlands, and with tomorrow’s Manchester derby at United followed by a trip to Arsenal on Saturday, Pellegrini conceded a return to peak form was sorely needed.
“It is important because maybe the last month we have not been scoring so many goals,” said Pellegrini. “But we’re always creating chances so in that sense I was very quiet and not worried about that. I hope we continue.
“Winning is always good preparation for the next match and winning the way we did today is always important. But a derby is a special match so we must try and forget about what we did today and think about what we must do against Manchester United.”
Toure’s hat-trick took the City captain to the 20-goal mark — a level already achieved by Alvaro Negredo and Aguero, with Dzeko also poised to join them with a current tally of 18. — AFP.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter